'Me, too'

I suppose so, but I'm not sure by whom.

 

It's pretty easy to narrow down who it was, I would think, with the amount of directors who exist and a very specific time frame.

If I said "I was assaulted by a member of the 500-homer club when I was 14," one could very reasonably conclude I was accusing Mike Schmidt. And Schmidt would have a pretty solid case.

Also something to consider: Maybe Witherspoon can't or won't press charges. Maybe one or several reporters have confirmed the director's identity and he is dead.

I almost look at a cesspool like Hollywood as akin to baseball's steroid era. I.e., "Canseco revealed that McGwire juiced."

 

Very different situation. In that case, she actually accused somebody of committing a crime. In the story we're discussing, she did no such thing. But apparently you've chosen to duck that distinction.

 

I addressed that upthread.

Actors meet with lots of directors. I'm not sure how narrow a field we can make here.

 

Narrow it down is not the same as clearly identify one individual. And as Azrael posted earlier, it doesn't even have to be a director she worked with who did it.

 

It would get much more narrow when talking about how many Reese Witherspoon came in contact with while she was 16, a year after her acting debut.

 

Wouldn't you have to definitively narrow it to one for a lawsuit?

 

No. That's my whole point.

On the flip side, we don't get too worked up when someone "reveals" they were abused as a child by a faceless relative.

 

In turning that around, I have to disagree with that. An accusation is an accusation, specific or not. And like Dick has been correct in saying all along, "reveal" denotes a level of belief that you cannot assume. At least not as a journalist. On social media, you can say any friggin' thing.

 

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/black-woman-me-too-movement-tarana-burke-alyssa-milano

 

Honestly, I don't see how somebody can sue if he can't even prove he was the director she was accusing. That brings us back to the point that she didn't accuse anybody of a crime. She just made a claim regarding what happened to her.

I still agree that revealed was the wrong verb to use, but it's a bit much to say she accused someone of a crime when she doesn't name or even give enough specific information to identify one person who did it.

I'd suggest that the guy with the fancy legal credentials weigh in, but I don't have much faith in him providing an honest answer.

 

This is a very concerning thing for a journalist to say.